(no subject)

[adiva_calandia]

A few things:

1) This is what my paper currently looks like:

1. What are the deeper and longer-term social and ecological causes of people’s vulnerability to food crises?
a. One of the biggest causes – and certainly the one Davis spends the most time examining – is the way local governments deal with the food supply. The problem is almost never a lack of food (Davis 27): it’s a lack of food being sent where it’s needed.
b. And, of course, it comes back to capitalism and free markets fucking everyone over. Global demand drives prices up (Davis 26, CNN 2) and then the people in the lowest economic brackets – often the very people who are producing the food – are screwed.
c. As to ecological reasons: El Nino, global warming.
i. Oil. Oil oil oil. And ethanol (CNN 2)
2. Whose views about the current food crises and these broader issues did CNN not include in its report, and why were they not included?
a. Poor people. Because they don’t matter! They’re poor and starving! What more do you need to know?
b. There’s a noticeable lack of farmers in here – no producers, just movers of product.
3. What needs to be done regarding dominant ways of organizing social and ecological relations in the world today in order to reduce people’s vulnerability to such crises?
a. Oh, screw you, Rouse, that’s what needs to be done.
b. Lessened dependence on fossil fuels, for one. That’s not going to fix everything, but it’ll fix a hell of a lot, including some of the global warming problems that are contributing to major shifts in El Nino cycles and the like.
c. Either the producers need to be paid enough to buy the food they produce, or the food needs to be provided at an affordable cost not fixed to its cost in first world countries (Davis 121), or the food needs to be provided at no cost.
d. Hey, you know what else would help? NOT FEEDING CORN TO COWS. A third of the world’s grain harvest gets fed to cows (http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Consumption/Beef.asp). The US both produces and consumes more beef than anywhere else in the world (http://www.cattlerange.com/world-beef/world-beef.html).

2) This is really interesting:

I am a medical student who recently heard a doctor who works with people who are going through gender reassignments. The (male) doctor said that as part of the pre-surgery counseling, he always asks the male-to-female patients if they are ready to give up their privileged-male status in society. He said the patients often come back to him after they have completed their transition into a female. They tell him that they didn't realize how significant the privileged-male status is.

3) I saw King Lear. It was really good. More later.

4) I did not see SPN. :(

Comments

[nepheliad.livejournal.com]

*excells at two conversations at once with the same person*

1d) I was just reading about this!

2) That is really interesting.

[rimestock.livejournal.com]

Out of curiosity, what's the source for #2's quote?

and I ... suspect that telling your teacher "screw you, that's what needs to be done!" is not going to get you the grade you really deserve overall. Sadly. :(

[adiva_calandia]

I'm not sure -- my mom sent it to me in an e-mail.

Alas, I suspect you're right. At least this is the last paper I have to write for him.

[batyatoon]

There's a Bujold novel in which a minor character has gotten a sex change, female-to-male. And he talks afterward about how people treat him differently -- on Beta Colony scarcely any difference; on Komarr the beginnings of it; and on Barrayar a pronounced and marked shift.

"The view from the top of the food chain is an interesting one."

[genarti]

#2 I find especially interesting given that I'm reading it shortly after this post on my friendslist, about being trans and the poster's experience of various male and female conversational roles in multiple situations.